


Unhappily ever after

by killing_kurare



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Past Relationship(s), Regret, Unhappy marriage, thinking of the past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-13 00:36:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9097765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killing_kurare/pseuds/killing_kurare
Summary: Lavender Malfoy sees Seamus from afar. This stirs memories and she wonders how different her life would be ...





	

  
**Challenge** : [](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/profile)[**comment_fic**](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/): [running into an ex ](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/758324.html?thread=99873332#t99873332)  
**Challenge:** [Ficathon: Like the whisper of the wind](http://gedanken-zirkus.livejournal.com/4783.html) \- _you will always be my biggest 'what if'._

 

 

“Please, stop the car.”

The driver halts just as Lavender asks him to and she rolls down the window of the limousine. A cold winter-wind blows into her face, but the woman doesn’t care. Her gaze is fixed on the little family on the other side of the road. They are standing in front of a shop window and the little girl stares at something Lavender can’t make out. Not that she tries to. She’s looking at the father of the girl, a man with distinctive red hair. Many years have passed, and yet she recognized him at once.

_Seamus …_

Lavender can’t help but keep watching him, how he talks to the little girl, his daughter she assumes, how happy he looks. Then a woman and a little boy join them, and Lavender’s heart beats faster as Seamus puts an arm around the woman and kisses her affectionately.

Lavender closes her eyes and rolls the window back up, tells the driver to go on.

Many thoughts creep into the woman’s mind, the loudest one: What if?

She remembers the day she broke up with him for Draco Malfoy, remembers the day she broke his heart and how sad and desperate he had looked at her, begging her not to leave, that he loved her more than Malfoy ever could.

Lavender laughs bitterly. How should she have known that he was right?

She and Draco had married too fast, and just as fast their passion subsided. At the time they were sure that it was ‘love’ that bound them together, but soon enough they realized that it had been something else. Their lives have drifted apart, though neither wants to admit out loud how unhappy they are.

When Lavender sets foot into her home, a mansion bigger than any other of the pureblood-society, Draco is nowhere to be found.

Not that she looked.

No one is there to greet her, to take her into his arms and kiss her, and her mind wanders back to the family on the street. She shudders and doesn’t bother to take off her coat for this house is always cold in a way, in spite of all the lit fireplaces.

Surely Seamus doesn’t have a house half as big (even that would be too generously spoken, Lavender is sure). Surely he couldn’t even imagine all the luxury she’s provided with. And yet …

And yet Lavender can’t keep herself from wondering how her life would’ve been if she stayed with him. Would she have two children, or even more? She and Draco tried many times, but she never got pregnant … not even potions would help, and at one point they just gave up and didn’t bother to try anymore.

Lavender would’ve loved to have children …

She smiles at the image of the little girl that clung to her father’s hand, imagines herself in the place of the mother, how warm Seamus’ arm around her must be, and how soft his lips … She can still remember the way he kissed her back then. Would it still feel the same?

“Would Miss like a tea?”

The voice of her house-elf interrupts her thoughts, and Lavender is surprisingly thankful for that. “Yes, please,” she says and at last takes off her gloves. “Oh, and please serve it with Ogden’s Firewhiskey. I need something more than tea to drive the cold out of my bones.”

 _“Yeah, you tell yourself that, Lavender,”_ she thinks and sighs.

“Anything to keep the thoughts of my favourite ‘What if’ out of my mind,” she answers herself with a soft voice and walks into the salon to drink her tea.

 


End file.
